Inside Outside Innovation

Ben Nelson is the CTO and Co-founder of Lambda School, a 9-month online education/training program. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, spoke with Ben about Lambda School’s disruption of the education market, the creation of an online school, and the use of an Income Share Agreement. Through an Income Share Agreement, students agree to pay back the costs of their training, once they receive a $50,000 a year job. A percentage of their income, up to $30,000, is paid back over the next two-year period. New Business Model & Trends - We started as a code boot camp. Now we’re in our own category. Competitors are changing to mimic the model. Competition doesn’t usually kill early startups. - Universities are overshooting the mark. Saddling students with big debt and students are wising up. People can get in trouble financially. - Fast tech change. People need to switch in the middle of their careers. Lambda is putting elasticity in the labor market.  - More people are moving towards portfolio wo

Energize Your Company's Culture Jon Katzenbach and Gretchen Anderson are co-authors of The Critical Few: Energize Your Company's Culture by Choosing What Really Matters. They spoke with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, about why culture is important for innovation and how to tap into the behaviors and emotions that can make a significant cultural impact.  The Critical Few Their book, The Critical Few, looks at working within an organization and drawing on a company’s strengths, rather than looking at what’s not working. Lessons are written within the story of a fictional CEO, focused on a company’s culture. While there are many universal issues of culture, Jon and Gretchen recognize that all cultures are singular and unique and that people within the company impact that culture.  Traits, Behaviors, and Emotional Connectors Jon and Gretchen explain that we must identify what the cultural traits are within a company, behavior that is happening around those traits, and who the people are wi

Neil Soni is the author of The Startup Gold Mine: How to Tap the Hidden Innovation Agendas of Large Companies to Fund and Grow Your Business. Neil spent years with startups, focusing on the sales and marketing side, trying to sell into large organizations. He then moved to Estee Lauder, where he specialized in external innovation. After seeing both sides, Neil wanted to create a resource to help startups understand the corporate side and corporations to understand the startup side. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, spoke with Neil about how to succeed through corporate/startup collaboration. Pitfalls of Corporate and Startup collaboration - Different timeframes - Size of deals    Incentive structures for partnerships - How comfortable is the corporate team in innovating? If comfortable, they’ll have a higher tolerance for misses. Look at the entire portfolio. - Companies that allow intrapreneurship, give employees new outlets to thrive.  Should you expose corporates to startups? - In

Gary Shapiro is the author of Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation and president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies and which owns and produces CES - The Global Stage for innovation. Gary has helped direct policymakers and business leaders on the importance of innovation in the U.S. economy. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Gary about innovation, creativity and how to thrive in a changing marketplace. Gary initially worked as a consultant to CES, then was hired to lead the organization. He was excited to discover that the CES board was committed to allowing anyone with an idea to get exposure. This action spoke to him. Years prior, Gary was involved in a lawsuit over the VCR. He coordinated and spoke on the issue, and now sees the parallels in the video, audio, and sharing industry. Today Gary continues to fight for innovators and breakthrough techn

Melissa Perri is the CEO of Produx Labs and Author of Escaping the Build Trap: How effective product management creates value. She believes that as companies scale, they lose track of what makes them successful and they just “ship.” Companies forget to bring products back to the overall strategy and talk with their customers. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Melissa about getting out of the build trap and having a customer-centric culture.  Companies in the Build Trap - Software startup - Growing and trying to exit. Look for product managers early. Can get out of build trap.  - Enterprises - Haven’t scaled through software. Brings in others to be product managers. A new discipline. Struggles with build trap.  As companies scale, they are close to the customer. As they execute, they forget to talk to the customer. Athena Health developed a portal for user research with its customers.  Escaping the Build Trap Takeaways - Explains how to think about Product Management - Ste

Vivek Bedi has worked in both corporate and startup innovation. His experiences range from positions at Goldman Sachs, to running his own company. Now at Northwestern Mutual, Vivek is the Head of Consumer Experience, Digital Products, working in both New York and Milwaukee. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Vivek about Northwestern Mutual's digital transformation. Vivek's team is responsible for everything digital that touches Northwestern Mutual’s 4.3 million clients. Three years ago, 150,000 of Northwestern Mutual's customers used their digital products. Today, over 1.8 million customers are engaged in the digital experience. Culture Change Northwestern Mutual is changing the culture around digital development, innovation, and collaboration. - New York had a startup culture, but Milwaukee had subject matter expertise. Both matter. How do they work together? - Pizza Pie teams - Developed small teams across two cities, tasked with one charter and putting something out every

Ajay Rajani is an investor, entrepreneur, and author of Navigating the shift to a ‘portfolio career’ - How we should think about our professional identities — when they’re designed to change. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, and Ajay talk about building and highlighting a portfolio career. After leading Nexxt, a digital remote accelerator that helps people take ideas and turn them into experiments, Ajay launched Mural. Mural helps people create portfolios based on skills and linked assets. It also makes it easy to curate versions of yourself for different people. Defining a Portfolio Career A portfolio career emphasizes passions, curiosity, and self-actualization. Types of jobs where a portfolio may apply: 1) Someone who wears multiple hats, 2) Someone who wears one hat, but in various contexts, 3) Someone who has different passions to highlight like copywriting and animal activist, and 4) Someone who is building a portfolio like VCs and freelancers.  Portfolio Growth The portfolio

Michael Frankel is the Managing Director of Deloitte’s New-venture Accelerator, a strategy and operations team for new business models. He believes people need to disrupt themselves continually or they will fall behind.  Emergence of the Hybrid  The broader trend of the journey from human to tech is not happening instantly. Things that require judgment and strategy, need a hybrid solution. A lot of technology has moved ahead of the user’s ability to use them. For example, we’ve digitized everything, because companies wanted the data. Now they are suffering from death by data. Talent profiles, of those better at adapting, are the Connector and Implementor. These are people who can be super users and use the info to solve a business problem. Product managers are critical with the adaptability to collaborate across technologies.  Technology that improves Human Life Conceptual technology that improves human life is an area Michael is excited about. AI, RPA and machine learning can solve a concrete problem in

Simone Ahuja, Author of Disrupt-It-Yourself: Eight Ways to Hack a Better Business---Before the Competition Does, researches barriers that are preventing large companies from innovating internally. Brian Ardinger, Founder of Inside Outside Innovation talks with Simone about these innovation barriers and what managers and leaders can do to support innovators.  Highlights from the discussion: Why is it so hard to innovate? - Lack of alignment - Disconnect between senior leaders and feet on the street. Lack of knowledge in the middle. Innovation is a relatively new discipline. There's a difference in metrics and incentives. Need to establish new metrics at all levels, creating space for innovation. - Innovation is different in companies that are large and older, where culture is deep. Not specific to the industry. - Need to encourage people to put forward innovative ideas (Value-creation innovation). It’s the pathway to innovation, but not everyone has to be an innovator or intrapreneur. Innovation Princ

Jana Eggers, CEO of Nara Logics, is an expert on Artificial Intelligence. In this episode, Brian Ardinger, Founder of Inside Outside Innovation, talks with Jana about the evolution, promises, and risks of Artificial Intelligence. Jana will be speaking at the E.N. Thompson Forum, in Lincoln, NE, on Feb 26, 2019.  Highlights from the discussion: - Jana trained as a mathematician and has worked at organizations like the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos, and a search engine company where she’s always used AI as a tool.  - Computing power is now commoditized, and there's lots of data from databases like ImageNet. These changes have brought Artificial Intelligence to the forefront again. - AI examples - Calendar scheduling, language translation, Waze, and Google - Machine learning vs. AI - e.g., Artificial light vs. natural light. Ask has the machine learned? Did it calculate how to respond? Did it recognize the context? - We need to understanding AI risks, but people should have a realist attitude. Do

Ted Schilowitz serves as Paramount Pictures' Futurist, as well as an advisor to the University of Nebraska’s Johnny Carson School of Emerging Media Arts. He sees himself as an explorer, with an eye toward storytelling and creativity. His modern lab rat approach, allows him to experiment with all types of technology and determine what makes it valuable for the future. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside founder, and Ted discuss the intersection between storytelling and human behavior. Specifically, they address next-generation screens to create the illusion of reality.  Highlights from the discussion: - VR is an emerging process of teaching people about new ways of using more powerful screens in their lives.  - People want entertainment when they want it and where they want it. Connecting the screen to your eyes and your brain, something that doesn’t exist yet at scale.  - Experiments with VR, AR, and mixed-reality headsets. Logging hours in experimenting, then bringing back experiences to the studio.  - The

If you don’t like disruption, you are going to HATE irrelevance.  Chris Olsen of Drive Capital talks about investing in world-class companies located in the Midwest. Drive Capital, a venture firm based in Columbus, OH, developed a $550 million fund with this aim. Chris believes the Midwest will see more billion-dollar companies in the next five years, and based on GDP, the Midwest is the 4th largest economy in the world. If there are more Venture Firms in the Midwest, we’ll see faster growth with LPs making more money in Midwest Venture funds than in Silicon Valley companies.  Why is today the right time? The Midwest is typically cheaper than the coasts, and with cloud computing, you can rent all the engineering and computing power you need. The access to technical specialty is now unlocking other geographies, like China and Europe. We are melding knowledge and tech and making advances in areas such as car insurance, healthcare, taxi rides, etc. There’s also an imbalance of venture capital invested in the M

Why do some people have innovative, creative ideas that change the game for everyone and challenge the way life is, and others don’t? Brian Ardinger, Founder of Inside Outside talks with Arjuna Ardagh about how brilliance and innovation can become more of a predictable outcome and less of an accident. They discuss his new book, Radical Brilliance - The Anatomy of How and Why People Have Original Life-changing ideas and the four phases of the Brilliance Cycle.  Brilliance Cycle Defined 12:00 - Moments where you transcend your mind. Get to the middle ground. Not in a hurry. Brain chemistry changes from Serotonin to Dopamine  3:00 - Full creative flow. Effortlessly. Intention to take a creative act. Movement from intention to accomplishment. Brain chemistry changes to  Testosterone/Estrogen and Oxytocin. Begin to operate within limits, creates stress.  6:00 - Accomplishing goals. Parasympathetic flooding begins. Start to have experiences of regret, when you are operating in constrained limits. Then movement

Sean Moffitt is Managing Director of WikiBrands and Author of WikiBrands: How to Reinvent Your Business in a Customer Connected Marketplace. He focuses on helping people develop a transformational arsenal, including skills in culture and talent, innovation and future proofing, technology and digital, and leadership/pivoting business models. Highlights of Sean's conversation with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Founder, include: What’s changing the corporate landscape:  - Speed at which things are happening. 7x faster than 25 years ago.  - Startups and Scaleups are much easier to create. Corporate innovation needs a wake-up call.  - Leverage corporate advantages with startup innovation. - Culture eats strategy, innovation, and tech for breakfast. Keys are people. New WikiBrands Research Study - Looking at the difference in how startups, scaleups, and corporates approach things and innovation in the wild. What’s working? - Hoping to find a definition of innovation and more focus on breakthrough Innov

Dr. Victoria Gerstman is the Assistant Director at Canopy Insight, a cultural insight and innovation consultancy. She helps companies and brands understand the cultural significance of different phenomena. Using semiotics, a method to interpret signs and symbols of culture which brands operate in, Victoria helps companies learn what’s important to people.  Canopy Insight works with many large brands around the world, to help them understand culturally specific meanings and the way meanings change over time. These meaning could be different across markets and demographic groups. This recognition is especially important for brands that have sub-brands which need to remain culturally relevant, that have a multi-market presence, and to avoid assuming home markets trends, are dominate in other places.  New Emergent Trends:  - Shift away from individualism towards communal experience.  - Changes in ideas of ownership. E.g. - Do you need to own a vacuum.  - Mainstreaming of sustainability for affordability. 

Paul Jarrett is co-founder/CEO of Bulu and a former Inside Outside podcast co-host. Bulu creates private label subscription box programs for large companies like Disney, GNC, Lululemon, and Crayola. In this episode, Brian Ardinger and Paul discuss new trends in big brand marketing, including getting in front of specific customer segments in new ways. Paul believes that in this changing marketplace, big companies are willing to collaborate and “horse trade,” but are also focusing on key metrics like customer acquisition costs. Key highlights include: Tell us about Bulu 1. Bulu is now at 250 FTE and managing revenue of over $50 million. Challenge is finding the right people to help scale.  2. Companies that want a physical interaction with customers are using subscription boxes.  Key factors when working with large brands 1. People managing the project have to get stuff done, transcend the business, and get along. Bulu won’t work with companies that don’t provide that.  2. Companies need entrepreneurs to un

Creating environments where innovation can thrive Aaron Proietti is author of the new book, Today’s Innovator. He’s spent 17 years working in the innovation space, including leading initiatives at Transamerica and Capital One. Aaron believes everyone wants innovation to happen, but the traits that make the company successful are the very things that are standing in the way of innovation.  Today’s Innovator In his new book, Today’s Innovator, Aaron focuses on how to create an environment where innovation can thrive. He focuses on strategy, culture, systems and that YOU are today’s innovator. Who do you need to be to thrive in a complex organization (people, politics and traits). Aaron also examines the stages of Innovation maturity and business models. Can you have core business operations, but push innovation and invent new things? It’s difficult to find the balance.  Innovation should be considered a business competency Systems are not setup to be innovative. You need repeatable, scalable, and sustainab

Changing everything while disrupting nothing John Buhl spent the last 13 years at Vanguard, innovating at all levels. He loved applying Lean Startup principles at scale and discovering what elements needed to change. Unfortunately, he hit many brick walls and found friction to make changes throughout the organization. The system of annual funding, with specific deliverables, was well entrenched. John wanted to understand, how do you shift a large company to be outcome-oriented and realize that old systems can be detrimental. Recently, John joined the Corporate Entrepreneur Community, formed by Eric Reis and Steve Liguori. Together they discovered three things: every company has the same problems, innovation is not science yet, and there’s a gap in peer-to-peer corporate community learning. One obstacle to innovating at scale is changing everything while disrupting nothing. John believes companies can succeed with incremental improvements and making it their own. On the team level, companies need to get

Barry O’Reilly is the Author of Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results and Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale. He and Brian Ardinger discuss creating a culture of experimentation in enterprises and seeing everything as an assumption.  Barry came to the U.S. originally from Ireland on a student visa and worked at City Search “putting people on the Internet.” He soon joined a mobile games development company and created a popular game called Wireless Pets. Soon large corporations started calling asking the company to build games. This caused Barry to develop an experimental mindset. Soon Barry moved to Australia to build next-gen content for E-learning in Southeast Asia. Game design and game theory is teaching new skills in safe environment. It allows for rapid experimentation and behavior. Then Barry joined a consultancy in London called ThoughtWorks. They were pioneers in Agile software development where he worked with companies to reinvent portfol

Innovation is No Longer Optional Doug Hall has been in the innovation space for more than 30 years. His new book, Driving Eureka!, is about finding, filtering and fast-tracking to market and includes an update on what is continuously being learned about creating, communicating, and commercializing ideas. In 1986, Doug started Eureka Ranch, an early "accelerator" program focused on commercializing products. He took a system-driven approach to innovation to enable businesses to increase speed and decrease risk. In 2008, Doug created Innovation Engineering, a field of study that will be on over 100 campuses by 2019. Innovation Engineering focuses on how to find, filter and fast-track​ ideas. He backs it with software that helps users find data through tools like rapid cycles, sales forecasts, writing patterns, and project management designed for innovation. Doug’s seen many ideas get compromised through development. His software captures data and helps businesses use the data as they go through the process. I